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NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2018 | LOSSPREVENTIONMEDIA.COM
EDITOR'S NOTE: Our annual
magazine editorial board meeting
was held in Philadelphia on October
10–12, 2018. The three-day event
was colocated with our friends
from the Retail Industry Leaders
Association (RILA) who held their
fall Asset Protection Leaders Council
meeting as well as the Loss Prevention
Foundation's yearly board of
directors meeting.
As part of the magazine portion
of the meetings that was themed
"Getting to Know You," we were
fortunate to hear a panel of veteran
asset protection executives discuss
their careers and views on the industry.
The panel included Mike Lamb, LPC,
vice president of asset protection for
The Kroger Co.; Cathy Langley, LPC,
senior director of asset protection for
Rite Aid; and Mark Stinde, MBA,
LPC, vice president of asset protection
for 7-Eleven. Serving as moderator was
Kevin Lynch, LPC, executive director
of business development for Tyco
Retail Solutions.
Following are excerpts from the
panel discussion. We wish to thank
the panelists for sharing their thoughts
and viewpoints with our attendees. We
are also sincerely grateful to the 150
or more retail executives and solution
providers who made time in their busy
schedules to participate in this event.
Thanks especially to the companies
who sponsored the event and made the
annual meeting possible.
MODERATOR: Let's begin
with how you started in
loss prevention and some
highlights of your career.
LAMB: I started in LP quite by
accident, really. I was going to the
University of Tennessee in Knoxville
in 1979, and my cousin helped me
find a part-time job with Millers
Department Store. So my entry into
retail was being the guy putting
the price stickers on the Lancôme
and Estée Lauder merchandise. A
few months into that job, someone
approached me about working in
security. I asked, "What's that?" and
"Does it pay more than I'm making
now?" Well, it did, so I started my
retail security career with Millers and
worked there until I moved to Rich's
Department Store in Atlanta in 1987.
Then I went to Home Depot in 1999,
Walmart in 2014, and now I've been
at Kroger for about eighteen months.
MODERATOR: How about
you, Cathy?
LANGLEY: I actually first applied
for a job in Rite Aid's warehouse
when I was seventeen. I grew up
on a farm, wasn't afraid of hard
work, and needed money to go to
business school. The manager of
the security department called me
about a clerk position. At the end
of our conversation, she asked if I'd
come in for an interview. I borrowed
my mother's wool suit in June and
did the interview with the director
of personnel and the manager of
security, so I started as a file clerk in
the security department. I worked
full time during the summer between
my junior and senior years of high
school and did a co-op through my
senior year. I then worked full time
including Saturdays for a while until
I went to business school. Eventually,
I went from file clerk to restitution
coordinator handling all civil
restitution work. Then I became office
manager over the corporate LP staff,
corporate director of LP, director of
analytics, and about seven years ago,
senior director of asset protection.
MODERATOR: Mark, you grew
up in the LP industry with
some great brands—Mervyns,
Toys"R"Us, Home Depot,
Sears, Circuit City, and now
7-Eleven. But I know that you
had a burning desire to get a
college degree. Tell us about
what motivated you at this
point in your career to invest
in education.
STINDE: I've been head of asset
protection at 7-Eleven now for
about eight years. Around my third
year in, the company selected key
leaders in the organization to attend
a leadership event at West Point
University. We had to submit our
resumes to be shared with everyone
who was going to the event. When
GETTING TO KNOW YOU
LPM annual meeting panel included (from right to left) Mark Stinde of 7-Eleven, Cathy Langley with Rite
Aid, and Mike Lamb from Kroger. Moderator was (far left) Kevin Lynch of Tyco Retail Solutions.